Please join me every Saturday for a discussion on "stuff"...
"'Disposable cups respresent the essence of an over consumptive society: an obsession with convenience'" (Alsop, 2004 in Ziada, 2009)
As I sit at our ancient, crash-happy computer, I wonder: about what shall I pen today? Usually the ideas tackle themselves in my head as Saturday approaches but this week...well, the fact that I have made it through endless hours of work, endless hours of meetings, and endless hours of volunteering (all done with a smile on my face and in my heart, in case I sound bitter!) with sanity let alone one prevailing idea with any worth (about obtaining sleep of course) is commendable of something.
About what shall I write?
Staring at the blank screen, I turn to my steaming mug of coffee to which I have recently allowed myself to become re-addicted. Only it is not a mug. Nothing "china" about it (well, except for perhaps where it was manufactured)...it's a soilish-coloured cup with a lip-ripping plastic lid.
According to Hanna Ziada's 2009 study (msep.mcmaster.ca) one million paper coffee cups, which are not recyclable, are sent to Toronto landfills every single day. Estimates are that 16 billion paper cups make it to U.S. garbage dumps annually.
Ziada points out that most studies concentrate on recycling rather than on consumption and habit changes. (Heard of "PlantBottle"? Think ketchup and other Coca Cola products. They actually can't be composted; "they have the identical chemical structure of plastic made from oil, and therefore should be recycled right along with petro-derived plastic" Mary Catherine O'Connor http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/breaking_down_bioplastics/)
(A paper coffee cup after 33 days in a compost bucket - the paper has biodegraded but the plastic liner remains. It will never break down.)
http://www.redwormcomposting.com/worm-composting/coffee-cup-challenge-day-33/
So how can we (slash big "I") make a change in habit?
If I choose not to currently tackle my caffeine problem perhaps the least I can do is to bring a re-useable mug with me. Plus most coffee shops offer a slight discount - even if it seems teeny, after about a month of discounted daily cups you'd get one on-the-house! (Which annually adds up to about 6 movie rentals or two bottles of wine or about 19L of gas for your vehicle.)
Even better: brew it at home. Especially if it has a re-useable mesh filter. (And your coffee grounds are great for the compost or even in chocolate cakes as you know if you read last week's "Munchy Monday"!?)
Originally I asked, "of what shall I write?" but now need to ask, "of what shall I change?" My computer will continue to crash and my weeks will continue to be full but the least I can do is have that steaming mug of pleasure-filled coffee in an actual, re-useable mug!
No comments:
Post a Comment